​At the farm we are pulling out our summer crops and planting our fall and winter crops. We need our salad greens and spinach planted before the end of September so they have enough daylight and warmth to germinate and grow before the days get too short and cold. Therefore, we have been incredibly busy trying to get this all accomplished. We got a big boost of help from Cheryl Stockwell Academy’s High School on Friday with ripping out cherry tomatoes, harvesting potatoes, pulling out drip irrigation from the fields, and weeding the rutabaga. It was amazing to have that many people working here at the same time!

BEFORE - Cherry Tomatoes were almost 8 feet tall.

AFTER - The kids as Cheryl Stockwell Academy ripped those plants out in only 2 hours!!!

​Fall is also one of my favorite times of the year because we plant garlic. It is a commitment to next year. Planting now and knowing that in 10 months we will have beautiful, fragrant, spicy bulbs of garlic to harvest. It is one of those crops that requires a 12 month investment. We plant in October, mulch heavily with leaves in the fall and again in the spring, harvest garlic scapes in June, harvest the bulbs in July, dry and cure in August, clean and start selling in August, then replant in October. We also save the largest bulbs to replant each year so we get to see the bulbs increase in size and quantity. Overall it is easy to grow and reaps huge rewards.

​It reminds me to evaluate tasks am I doing now that are labor and time intensive, but will reap the rewards later. It is often easy for me to get all wrapped up in the daily tasks and forget that I will see the results. I just have to be patient.

One of my favorite sayings, that got me through college (especially when I wanted to quit and go sailing), was written by Robert Collier. I kept it with me all through college. It was so inspirational that I decided to cross stitch it and hang it in my house as a constant reminder. It is good for me to not only read it, but read it with my cherished ambition in mind.